CIMB Group has received approval from the Vietnam Securities Commission for its subscription of an equity interest in Vinashin Shipbuilding Finance Company Securities LLC (VFC Securities). VFC Securities will change its name to CIMB Vinashin Securities LLC, with immediate effect. Under the terms of the shareholders' agreement, CIMB will subscribe to an initial equity interest of 10% in VFC Securities for VND34bn (approximately RM6.7m) with an option to increase its shareholding to 40% for a total capital contribution of up to VND200bn (approximately RM39.2m). (Bernama)

Public Bank has no plan for any acquisition but aims to expand its scale and scope locally and aboard, COO Leong Kwok Nyem said. "We are very focused in organic growth strategy. We are aiming for 15% growth in loans and retail deposits," Leong added. Meanwhile, Leong also said that Public Bank has no plans to raise fresh capital this year despite some quarters expressing concern that its capital ratios may decline upon the implementation of enhancements to the Basel II framework. (Bernama, FInancial Daily)

Alliance Bank Malaysia will not be paying any compensation to its outgoing chief executive officer (CEO) Datuk Bridget Lai, sources said. Lai and COO Shim Kon Teck, who have been on leave since Dec pending an internal probe, are to resign from the bank on April 1. Lai and the bank said in a joint press statement last Thursday that it was an amicable parting of ways. The bank, meanwhile, has already started its hunt for a new CEO. "The board has already started looking for a CEO, but it's still too early to narrow down candidates," a source said. He said the new CEO is expected to come from outside of the banking group as there are no suitably experienced candidates from within. (BT)

Alliance Financial Group announced the resignation of Shim Kon Teck as group COO of Alliance Bank Malaysia with effect from April 1, 2010. Shim's resignation follows the resignation of Alliance Bank group CEO Datuk Bridget Lai last week, which is also effective April 1. (Bernama)

Bursa Malaysia and Taiwan’s GreTai Securities Market signed a MoU to embark on a collaborative effort to further develop the capital markets in both countries. Under the MOU, both exchanges would develop communication channels to facilitate enhanced information sharing capabilities. (Bernama)

Sime Darby Property is waiting for approvals from the state and federal governments on its plans for its proposed 10,861 acre Selangor Vision City development, said MD Tunku Datuk Putra Badlishah. He said the proposal had taken a while as it was a massive project. Meanwhile, Selangor MB Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim said he hoped to announce the status of the application next month. (Financial Daily)

Proton Holdings will shift its focus towards developing cars for the world market, a departure from its 25-year philosophy of serving mostly domestic buyers. Chairman Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh said the small domestic car market makes it necessary for the company to look abroad to be able to reap economies of scale in production.

Yesterday, at the Geneva Motor Show, Proton’s founder and adviser Dr Mahathir unveiled Proton's first concept car, dubbed "EMAS", a four-seater hatchback compact car, designed by Italdesign Giugiaro SpA. MD Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohd Tahir said the vehicle can be powered by electricity, an internal combustion engine or a combination of petrol and electricity.

The car is expected to go into production in about 17 months to two years, depending on the market environment. Syed Zainal declined to reveal the car's price except to say that, in general, hybrid cars are priced 30-40% more than basic cars. But it is understood that the price will be below RM50,000. (BT)

Edaran Tan Chong Motor Sdn Bhd (ETCM) is offering attractive interest rates as low as 1.98% per annum for some Nissan models. Buyers will be charged 1.98% per annum for a loan period of up to two years for the purchase of Nissan Sylphy, Grand Livina, Sentra, XTrail and Serena. For loans of three to four years, an interest rate of 2.28% is imposed for the same models, ETCM said. Interest rates for loans of more than four years will be based on prevailing market rates, the company added. (BT)

IDC analyst Chua Fong Yang said the growth of mobile phone sales in Malaysia is expected to grow 5% this year after a flat 2009. 5.5m phones were sold in 2008 and 2009. The top three vendors are Nokia (53% share), Samsung (18%) and Ericsson (11%). Increasingly Apple iPhone is gaining popularity with about 91,000 units sold since March last year. Chua said touchscreen and QWERTY keyboards will remain a popular feature which will be a prerequisite among users below the age of 25. (StarBiz)

Celcom Axiata’s move to set up Celcom Exclusive Partner (CXP) outlets nationwide has resulted in more Bumiputeras entering the business and an increasing number of subscribers. Celcom Eastern region VP, Datuk Sulaiman Ahmad said the solid support was clearly seen in the east coast, where revenue and the number of subscribers have been increasing annually. (Bernama)

Rebar prices in Malaysia have not changed this week, as weak demand forces mills to put off price rises for a third week running. Malaysian mills continued to list rebar at RM2,000- 2,100 per tonne this week, unchanged from three weeks ago, officials said. There had been speculation that producers would raise prices because of higher scrap and billet prices. Input costs are rising, but demand is still not strong enough to support price rises, mill officials said. (Metal Bulletin)

AirAsia is launching another “Big Sale” promotion, promising more destinations at even lower fares than the previous “Big Sale” held in August 2009. The booking period is from today to Sunday for travel between September 25 2010 and February 13 2011. (BT)

Boustead Holdings marked a significant corporate exercise by disposing of its 80% stake in BH Insurance (M) Bhd to AXA Affin General Insurance for RM363m. The move is in line with the group's decision to streamline its insurance business. According to Affin Holdings chairman Tan Sri Datuk Seri Mohd Zahidi Zainuddin, the exercise would place the group on a stronger footing to build a larger financial services group in the country. (Bernama)

Biosis Group plans to make SSN Medical Products Sdn Bhd, a natural rubber glove and condom producer, as its subsidiary, Chief Executive Officer Khoo Chee Kong said. Biosis, via its subsidiary Biosis Marketing Sdn Bhd, today inked a distributorship agreement with SSN Medical and another deal which gives Biosis the option to buy up to 51% stake in SSN Medical. "The plan now is to do the marketing of SSN Medical products first. When the time is right, we will exercise the option,” Khoo said. (Bernama)

Guinness Anchor (GAB) is aiming to achieve 60% share of the country’s beer and stout market this year, higher than its 57% share last year, said marketing director Mark Jenner. “I am convinced that GAB can make Tiger the biggest beer in the country,” he said. (Financial Daily)

Tightly held Malaysian Mosaics saw around 5.8m shares or 7.4% crossed in two offmarket transactions yesterday. The total value of the transactions works out to about RM9.4m or RM1.62 a share, a 14% premium to the stock's last traded price of RM1.42. (Financial daily)

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) will raise interest rates in a measured, gradual way in order to keep supporting the economy, governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz said. She added that inflation pressures remained modest although with possible increase and the central bank would not rush to withdraw policy support. Interest rate will continue to be supportive of growth. Zeti also said a change to banks’ reserve requirements was not likely to be part of the normalisation process unless they have a fundamental situation of extreme excess liquidity in the system. Returning to a system of fixed exchange rates would not be warranted as they want more stability, she added. (Financial Daily)
We expect Bank Negara Malaysia to raise the overnight policy rate by 50bps to 2.50% by end-2010. The first rate hike of 25bps could come on 4 March.

Malaysia is confident of raking in higher foreign direct investments (FDIs) this year. It’s targeted at RM27.0bn for 2010, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said. “We hope to see an increase both from foreign and domestic for this year,” he said. The efforts would continue to be made to woo more foreign companies in Malaysia to increase their investments while continue to encourage more local investors to increase their investments, he added. (Bernama, BT)

Malaysia's exports are expected to grow between 6 .0-7.0% in 2010, double the earlier forecast of a 3.5%, as demand improves in tandem with the global economic recovery. This is close to the historical figure of 7.0-9.0% achieved in a good year, said Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed. He added that a higher export growth is needed for the country to achieve the gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast of 5.0-6.0% for this year. (Bernama, BT)
We are looking for a stronger export growth estimate of 10.0% this year, underpinned by the upturn in global chips demand as well as the still-firm commodity prices.

The government will emphasise on promoting more domestic private investments through public-private partnership (PPPs) under the 10th Malaysia Plan instead of depending on foreign direct investments to ensure future growth, said Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop. He added that the country's healthy current account surplus would ensure there are enough resources to finance a much higher level of private investments. (Bernama)

The government will continue with its moves to further build and develop more infrastructures in the country via privatisation initiatives, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop. “Infrastructure development is a key component to unlock potential activities and support sustainable economic growth. The government will continue to place emphasis on it as part of our economic transformation,” he said. (Financial Daily)

The issue over the use of food grade insulated fish box is now settled, with fish importers agreeing to abide by the ruling, Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Noh Omar said. Fish importers ended their boycott yesterday following an agreement with the authorities to extend the deadline until November to switch to food-grade insulated fish boxes.

He also said the importers had mistakenly though they had to use the insulated fish boxes immediately and now the association members were satisfied with Noh's explanation including on the monopoly in the supply. They were now allowed to buy boxes from manufacturers which offered lower prices, he said. He also admitted that the ministry had overlooked the need to allow the production of 30kg boxes with a subsidy of RM30 per unit. Noh had previously announced a subsidy of RM50 for the 100kg boxes and RM30 for the 50kg boxes, with a total subsidy of RM2.4m. (NST, Bernama)

US sales of North American-made automobiles surged in February from a year ago, with cars up 34.3% and light trucks up 15.3%. Ford saw car sales up 54% from a year ago and light trucks up 38%. (Xinhua)

Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, warned Tuesday of slow progress in US economic growth and the employment picture, caused by uncertainties surrounding legislative initiatives from Washington and ongoing problems in the banking sector tied to commercial real estate. ( Xinhua)

European inflation slowed to 0.9% yoy in February (1.0% in Jan) after rising unemployment and a weakening recovery prompted households to scale back spending. It was in line with the median estimate. (Bloomberg)

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said his government is discovering “new holes” in the budget on a daily basis as it prepares to announce as much as €4.8bn (US$6.5bn) in extra deficit cuts. Bowing to pressure from the European Union and investors to do more to tame the EU’s biggest budget gap, the steps to be unveiled today will include higher tobacco, alcohol and sales taxes and steeper reductions in public workers’ bonus payments. (Bloomberg)

Australia’s central bank resumed raising interest rates after a one-meeting pause, judging that faster-than-anticipated economic growth will allay concerns that European deficits may roil global confidence. Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens increased the benchmark overnight cash rate target to 4.00% from 3.75%, as predicted by economists. Stevens said rates should be closer to “average,” which he last week signaled may be 75bps higher than this new level of 4.00%. (Bloomberg)

The Bank of Canada maintained its economy-stimulating policy interest rate at 0.25% and repeated pledges to keep it there through the first half of this year, while leaving subtle room to change its mind next April. (Xinhua)

South Korea’s consumer prices climbed 2.7% yoy in February (3.1% in Jan), while remaining within the central bank’s annual inflation target range (2.0-4.0%), as oil-product charges increased. It matched economists’ forecast. On a mom basis, consumer price advanced 0.4% in February (0.4% in Jan). (Bloomberg)

China will target a higher budget deficit this year of more than RMB1.0tr, a senior lawmaker said. Beijing would again permit provincial governments to issue their own bonds this year. The sum would be similar to the RMB200bn issued in 2009. (Financial Daily)

Singapore's Purchasing Managers' Index for manufacturing expanded to 51.9 in February (51.4 in Jan), marking the tenth straight monthly rise and pointing to a positive outlook for the manufacturing and global electronics industry. The increase is attributed to higher new orders, new export orders and high level in production output. (Channel News Asia)

Thailand’s inflation slowed to 3.7% yoy in February (4.1% in Jan) as the prices of some commodities eased. That marks the fifth month of gains. The median estimate was for a 3.4% increase. (Bloomberg)

India’s exports rose 11.5% yoy to US$14.3bn in January (9.3% in Dec 09) for a third straight month as economic recoveries in the US and Europe created demand for the nation’s cars and jewelry. Imports expanded by 35.5% yoy in January (27.2% in Dec 09). (Bloomberg)

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